|
Cruelty Without Beauty
09/19/2002 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef
Way back in 1981 Soft Cell hit it big with "Tainted Love," one of the first synth pop songs to go nationwide in the wake of such classics as Gary Numan's "Cars" and Human League's "Don't You Want Me?" With electro all the rage once again, Soft Cell's return is prescient, but the duo of Marc Almond and Dave Ball is not coasting. Cruelty Without Beauty is perhaps the most salacious, scathing record to be released all year. Soft Cell still uses the carping synths and house beats of yesteryear, but fuelled by conservatism run amok and corporate globalism contaminating economies and environments, Soft Cell makes music with a malicious glee.
"Monoculture" pounds over a bleak groove, Almond singing "Everything the same/No change, the world has gone insane." He ponders "Why don't I just give up and give in to the great God of bland, all my exotic gestures no longer in demand." If Fast Food Nation didn't make you mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore, "Monoculture" will. From here, we do a grand tour of foul media stars ("Grand Guignol"), delusional pop singers ("Desperate"), a pleasure-obsessed population ("Sensation Nation"), and its power-mad leaders ("Caligula Syndrome"). Soft Cell still works the synth pop that made it famous, the sounds here are the same as they ever were. But with songs full of piss and vinegar, Soft Cell's return is triumphant and toxic.
|
